Almost done?

We are sick and tired of home reconstruction. Progress is good, it just all takes too long!

The outside and inside walls are all finished now and we have a ceiling again. This is also the week of the floor, today the isolation was put in (last picture of the series), tomorrow we will get our floor heating and on Thursday the floor itself will be put in. Next week is the week of the walls and the week thereafter we will have a kitchen again. Can you imagine what a luxury?

We miss you all, we miss Deerfield and the US. We have started to make some first summer vacation plans for next year, hope to see you than!

Halloween

Another weekend means more work in the house for us. Except for the regular cleaning of all the mess the constructors leave behind, we have been building a new wall. In the mean time Saskia has been preparing for our tonight's halloween party.

But first: our new front door. Finally we own a door which properly closes, the hallway will stay warm this the winter!

This is our new wall, we have now created a real garderobe and a larger bathroom.

This is the first part of the stone wall. On the picture it is not clear, but around the corner the work is completed.

Than the good stuff of the weekend. We had a halloween party with baseball friends in Wassenaar. Dide was dressed as an octopus (Saskia and grandma Dorien made the suit) and Ties went in his skeleto suit again. Big fun in trick or treating and it was surprising how many kids went out on the streets and how many people had their house dressed up as well.

Oh yeah, this it was also mandatory for parents to come dressed up. We did not really change a lot, though. Saskia was a witch and I went as a mad scientist (no pictures from me).

This is one of the treats Saskia brought, great idea from a friend here.

After sweets and cakes the kids played outside for hours, soccer it was. Good that our weekend is an hour longer. We change to winter time tonight, I believe 2 weeks earlier than in the US. Only 6 hours of time difference! Anybody interested in Skyping?

Apologies

It has been a while since I posted pictures of our construction work. A lot has happened in the mean time and we are making good progress. Yes, we, together with the constructor.

But we are also still having fun. The last 3 weeks we have been to The Netherlands's biggest leisure park ("Efteling"), the smallest city (where many famous Dutch buildings are in miniature format) and a children's musical. And before I forget, Dide had her first horse back riding lesson today, she was totally excited!

And this is how we are having dinner now with the ground floor under construction .......... in the bedroom

And more work in the backyard

I am sorry to say that there is not too much more to mention than more work on our home extension. We are busy almost every single evening and are making some pretty good progress, although it is always moving too slow! The weather is the best we could have wished for, fingers crossed that will stay for a little longer.

Oh, today was the kids final baseball game of this season. Ties and his team received a trophy (for participation).

And Saskia and another mom organised an end-of-season party for which Saskia made the cake. You can bet what the name of the team is.

And while the parents were talking about the US, the kids played outside. It is good that showers were invented.

Construction work

Incredible that it has been less than 2 weeks that our home extension-building-project had officially started. It feels if we are in the dirt for months already! Well, on the positive side, we are making good progress (and the constructor even more). The foundation is almost ready, a big plate of concrete with little walls on top. Next week we will have a ground floor!

Last week was a lot of digging, we were dealing with waste water pipes and excess ground to remove. The weather has been great, it is like summer has finally started.

But this weekend, there is not too much for us to do. So we went with Dide to her baseball game, the season will end next week. And Dide had the greatest action of her season by catching a fly ball in the outfield. Everybody cheering and we were proud. And although Dide will not admit it, she was proud too. See picture below.

And some pictures on the home construction .........

Cheers!

Home extension

After many months of preparations we have finally started with the work to extend our home!

First we threw a party to say goodbye to our "old" house. We brought lots of cookies from our trip to the UK, so we organized an English High Tea.

And the next week it started. We decided to first insulate part of our garage to change it into a children's playing area, remember, we have no basements in The Netherlands. We will move our old kitchen here, so lots of storage space and running water, great for kids painting. With help from friends we did a lot of work in weekends and evenings. All the work behind the walls like electricity, insulation and the actual construction is already hidden, but it all cost tons of time!

And then, yesterday, the big digging started. Because soil is so wet and soft here, we need a hole of about 1,20 m (4 feet) were concrete will be put, otherwise the house will start floating. We decided to rent a "little" machine and do the work ourselves, again with the help of family (they must love us!).

And this is the result of all the work. Next week the constructor will start! We will keep you posted.

Long weekend to see the Bullifent family in England

We drove to northern France for a 2 hour ferry trip to Dover, UK.

We left home 3 AM, and sailed at 8 AM. The weather was nice, like the rest of the weekend. We have been extremely lucky, everywhere in Europe it was miserable, but we were partly sunny all the time, almost no rain.

Jessica and Saskia in the playground.

And our 4 kids in Sheffield city center.

British!

Playing in the city fountains here.

And a hike over the moors.

The pictures below were taken in and around Leighton Buzzard. I remember all these places from my own childhood, and now Dide and Ties are opening the locks like we did before.

Old memories .........

When you zoom in you can actually see the Plantations between the trees (at least at our computer using the high resolution pictures).

We also visited Cambridge, just a few hours, enough to get an impression.

And on the way back. What is Ties thinking about?

White cliffs of Dover.

Now all vacations are really over. The kids have only a few days left before going to school again. Radboud is back at work and Saskia will start her new job soon. Oh, and we have a home reconstruction coming up.